NCAA Football Tulsa Football

Last year, Tulsa became the only college football program in history to have a 1,000 yard back, a 5,000 yard passer and three 1,000 yard receivers. A while back I mentioned that one of those 1,000 yard receivers was fullback John Clay.

He led his team with eights catches for 92 yards that day and closed the season with 69 receptions for 1024 yards (14.8 average) and seven touchdowns. Clay was also third on the team in rushing with 304 yards (5.3 average).

Not bad for a guy who by many accounts was only modestly recruited by the school he signed with, a class-filler type recruit.

The Tulsa story continues to get better. Heavily overlooked is the fact that one of their receivers set an NCAA reception average record.

[Brennan] Marion last season averaged an astounding 31.9 yards per catch on 39 receptions, breaking the 39-year-old Division I-A mark set by Houston's Elmo Wright, who averaged 27.9 yards on 43 receptions in 1968. That's an amazing accomplishment, especially considering Marion was in his first season at Tulsa.

Not bad. Read the story by Rivals writer Olin Buchanan for details on Marion's vagabond existence, attending six high schools and two junior colleges, at times without a place to live.

Offensive gurus don't take kindly to head coaches out-and-out shelving of their precious schemes. So it comes as no surprise that when queried about the difference from last year at Arkansas to this one, new Tulsa offensive Coordinator Gus Malzahn snippily states the obvious:

I think the biggest difference is that we're going to run the spread, no-huddle offense. Coach [Todd] Graham is 100 percent behind that philosophy and I am too," Malzahn said. "I think that's the biggest difference.

Here's looking at you, Houston Nutt.

Malzahn - at least publicly - has been classy about his tenure at and departure from Arkansas, but the fangs came out a little this week. Until now he's been deferential about Arkansas' reversion from his offense to a heavy ground attack, but safely ensconced in Tulsa with a friend as his boss, Malzahn has finally given some light to the philosophical disagreement between himself and coach Nutt. He later added "this is who I am as a coach."

Oddly, new Tulsa coach Todd Graham also subtly snipes at Major Applewhite, his offensive coordinator last year at Rice.

"I like going into meetings and there's no arguments over philosophy," Graham said. "We philosophically believe the same thing."

Graham was a little put off in the offseason, telling reporters:

If (Applewhite) chooses to leave our offense doesn't leave with him," Graham said. "We run Rice's offense not Major Applewhite's offense

Anyway, it's good to see both coaches working their complexes off.

Previously at FanHouse:
Mess at Arkansas Continues with Malzahn Departure and Mustain Rumors
David Lee Hired to Replace Gus Malzahn as Arkansas Offensive Coordinator
What's Going Down in Arkansas

Vitals

Tulsa (8-4, 5-3 CUSA) vs. Utah (7-5, 5-3 Mountain West)
Saturday Dec. 23
Forth Worth, Texas
8 PM Eastern, ESPN

Spread

Utah favored over Tulsa by 1 to 2 points

How Tulsa Got Here

By falling apart late. At one point this season the Golden Hurricanes were 7-1 with quality wins over Navy, Southern Miss, East Carolina, Memphis and UTEP. However, they lost three consecutive to Houston (27-10), Rice (41-38) and SMU (34-24) before crushing Tulane 38-3 to end the misery. This team had high hopes heading into this season but simply deflated towards the end.

How Utah Got Here

By being one of the most manic teams in D-I. They were crushed by UCLA in the opener 31-10 then won three straight over cupcakes by a margin of 131-14. They then were crushed by Boise State at home, 36-3. Somehow, they beat TCU 20-7 the next week before losing to Wyoming 31-15 and New Mexico 34-31. Appear to have righted the ship at the end, beating UNLV and Colorado state in convincing fashion, narrowly defeating Air Force and losing by just two points to BYU.


What You Absolutely Have To Know About Tulsa

Tulsa is the setting for the book/movie The Outsiders, and is also the hometown of author S.E. Hinton. The city is the hometown of Arkansas tailback Felix Jones. John Cooper once coached at Tulsa from 1977 to 1984.

What You Absolutely Have To Know About Utah

What's a ute? This was the program Urban Meyer used as a springboard to the Florida job.

What You Absolutely Have To Know About This Game

I thought this was going to be the new Army/Navy game, what gives? Navy made themselves bowl eligible this year but Bobby Ross couldn't quite hack it at Army this year. Not that either was slated to play here anyway. We could've thrown in Air Force and the Citadel and made this a postseason Tournament of Champions among the Academies, no?

Score Prediction

Tulsa 24, Utah 17

So the Mids may have loss, but the good news is I was able to get some great pictures from the game. Most of these were taken by my Father, who has developed a pretty good feel for this photography thing over the past few weeks. Here they are in no particular order.

I love this picture, it's like smorgasbord for my eyes. Tyler Tidwell knocking down Paul Smith. Back when those two were sophomores in High School, they won the Oklahoma State Championship together.

I don't care how badly he played, this picture really illustrates how tough it is to run the Triple Option. That's All CUSA Linebacker Nick Bunting coming in from behind.

O.k, maybe that was a little too dramatic, especially considering Notre Dame would have taken it's usual freebie against the Mids in October, but we were so close. Let me rewind it for those of you who may have missed it. Navy, which led 17-14 into the fourth quarter, lost in overtime today when backup kicker Matt Harmon's PAT was blocked.

To confine this game into those last few minutes would be a mistake however, and the reality is that the Mids let this one slip away right after their first possession of the second half. Navy's offense looked flat all day, conjuring up shades of the UMass game when a tentative Brian Hampton was just unable to get the job done. While moving the ball for 356 total yards, Hampton and the offense were unable to establish the option on the outside of the field, allowing an aggressive Tulsa defense to box them within the hash-marks. Furthermore, penalties at key moments in the game- including a holding call on a 4th quarter drive that broke into Tulsa territory- helped kill multiple Navy possessions. The execution wasn't there, the play calling was conservative, and once again it looked as though the Navy offense was playing not to lose, instead of playing to win. I know Paul Johnson is maintaining that there's nothing wrong with the offense, but after today's performance it certainly looks as though execution isn't the only problem. The option reads were poor, and at times the play-calling made me scratch my head. I mean what gives, I never scratch my head for Johnson's play-calling!?!

Defensibly, the Mids held most of the game, and received good contributions from the linebackers, including Player-of-the-Game Rob Caldwell. Yet the defense was unable to force a turnover, and allowed the Tulsa offense to score at important points in the game. While the defense made a great defensive stand to stop the Golden Hurricane on 4th and Goal at the one yard line, they nevertheless failed to get pressure on Tulsa QB Paul Smith, who was an effective 24-26 for 285 yards.

Right now I'm somewhat in shock. I really thought the Mids would find a way to win this game. The untimely stalling of the offense was very frustrating to watch, and you just got the feeling from watching this game that Navy should have won. Some "interesting" calls by the referees didn't seem to make a lot of sense, and I'll have to take some time reviewing what happened before I cry any injustice. For the meantime, I extend my congratulations to the Tulsa football program and give them all the credit in the world.

EDGE: Tulsa

It's been no secret that Navy's success over the past three years has been tied to Paul Johnson's triple option offense. And while the Navy defense hasn't exactly been lights out over the past few seasons, a talented and experienced group of defenders has slowly begun dispelling that point. The Midshipmen have been getting timely defense in their first three games, often stepping up and shutting down the opposition when the offense has been unable to get anything going. The "bend but don't break" style of Coach Buddy Green has worked up to this point, despite allowing large amounts of passing yards in the wins against East Carolina and Stanford. Navy's run defense meanwhile has had some success this year, thanks to excellent play by linebackers Rob Caldwell, Clint Sovie, Tyler Tidwell, and David Mahoney. Mahoney has really set the tone for the defense this season, flying all over the field and delivering a punishing blow to the opposition. The Mids don't need to do anything special against Tulsa, but must prevent the big play. This will be more difficult then usual with a banged up secondary (FS DuJuan Price will not play), but after limiting Stanford last week, certainly looks possible After some early season problems, it's not unlikely that the Golden Hurricane will turn the ball over at some point, and if the Navy defense can tighten up in the redzone, should allow the offense to get the job done.

Tulsa's offense is lead by Quarterback Paul Smith, who was actually a high school teammate of Navy linebacker Tyler Tidwell in High School. Smith was the MVP of the Liberty Bowl last year, and threw for 2847 yards with a 20-6 touchdown-interception ratio as a sophomore last season. The key will be for Tulsa's offense to get off to a quick start. Smith threw two interceptions against North Texas last week, and for the Golden Hurricane to have any chance in this game the offense will have to put Navy in a hole early. The Golden Hurricane have a distinct advantage against an injury riddled Navy secondary, especially with the speed on wide receivers Ryan Bugg and Idris Moss. Up front, Tulsa's big offensive line (4 out of 5 players over 300 lbs) should be able to protect Smith and get a good push up font against an undersized Navy line. Tulsa's running backs, including former VHT and Oklahoma transfer Courtney Tennial, are fast and elusive, and could give the Navy defense problems all day. Balance and consistency are a must for Tulsa, which should be able to move the ball without great difficulty against the Mids. Even so, they'll need to capitalize on nearly every possession if they wish to keep up with Navy's offense.

EDGE: Navy

After a hideous performance against Massachusetts two weeks ago, the Navy offense responded in full force with 37 points against Stanford last week. Scoring on eight of ten possessions, the triple option offense rolled to near perfection with Brian Hampton at the helm. With his confidence back, I fully expect Hampton to be able to lead the offense to similar success. The running game had been exceptional to date, and in no small part to an under-appreciated offense line. After last week's performance, look for FB Adam Ballard to establish the inide running game, while Hampton and the slotbacks take advantage of lanes created on the outside. If the Mids can play their game and not get careless with the football, then the offense should be able to put a reasonable amount (24-35) of points on the board.

Not to take anything away from Stanford, but the Tulsa defense should give the Mids a better game. It's an aggressive group led by a tremendous set of linebackers who really fly to the football. The Golden Hurricane defense absolutely stoned the North Texas offense last week, holding the Mean Green to only 89 yard of offense, including only 27 yards on 31 attempts! While it was certainly an impressive performance, the same Tulsa defense yielded 467 yards and 49 points to BYU just the week before. With this inconsistency in mind, it's hard to predict which facet of the Tulsa defense we'll see Saturday. The group of linebackers, led by Nick Bunting and Nelson Coleman, might be the best in CUSA, but will they be enough to stop the Navy Triple Option? As usual, the outcome of this matchup will be determined by the ability of Navy's offense to execute and establish tempo. Look for the Golden Hurricane defense to apply the pressure early, but for a more confident Navy offense to find a way to score.

When 2-1 Tulsa rolls into Annapolis for Saturday's game against the 3-0 Navy Midshipmen, you can bet you'll see a match-up of two of the best non-BCS teams in the nation. Tulsa, lead by Head Coach Steve Kragthorpe, is coming off a 9-4 season, including a Conference-USA championship and victory over Fresno State in the Liberty Bowl. The Golden Hurricane have defeated I-AA foe Stephen F. Austin and Sun Belt member North Texas to start of the year, although dropped a contest to BYU two weeks ago. The Golden Hurricane offense is lead by Quarterback Paul Smith, who has passed for 677 yards (65.9%) with six touchdowns and one interception this season. A staunch defense is led by a talented and veteran linebacker crops, while eight players in the secondary return from last year's team. Tulsa's defense yielded just 89 total yards against North Texas last week.

The Midshipmen are meanwhile 3-0 after last week's 37-9 win at Stanford, and look to expand an impressive home winning streak. After compiling 446 yards against the Cardinal last week, the Navy offense is finally looking as good as advertised. A experienced Midshipmen defense has bailed out the Navy offense when necessarily, and looked impressive in holding Stanford to only nine points.

This really should be a great matchup, and when all is said and done, should tell us something about where the winner stands in relation to the best of the non-BCS. While TCU and Boise St. are obviously the front-runners in the category, you can't list your Top 10 without the Midship or the Golden Hurricane. Bragging rights aren't only at stake in this one though, as each of these teams looks to show doubters around the country that they can defeat a winning program. The Tulsa loss to BYU and the Navy performance against UMass have left some wondering whether or not these programs are the real deal, and the only way to silence the critics will be to put a "W" in the column against a potential Bowl team.

Tulsa Head Coach Steve Kragthorpe (say that three times in a row) sat down to talk to the media about Saturday's game against the Midshipmen the other day, and as you would expect, he had some very interesting things to say about the program and it's players. As usual, I've highlighted the interesting parts, although you can read the entire transcript right hyah.

On Playing against an Offensive Attack like Navy's

"I think the biggest thing that you have to do is to stay patient. I think when you get the football, you can't say `gosh we have to score in three to four plays because we may not get the ball back. In a typical college football game you are going to get anywhere from 10 to 12 possessions and that's probably knocked down one or 1.5 possessions this year with the new rule changes. I think that it is imperative that we stay patient when we get ball and say `hey we just have to play our game and go down and score points'. We have to make sure that we are doing the things we need to do offensively and not get into a rushed tempo in an effort to get a number of possessions."

The more I think about this stradegy, the more I change my mind over it's effectiveness. While concerted drives are a must in most games, against a team like Navy you almost need to put the ball in the end-zone as fast as possible. Let me elaborate. Coach Green's defense relies on other teams making mistakes. The bet is that if you make a team spend 15 plays driving the field, chances are something will go wrong at least a couple of times during the game. While I hesitate to make a judgment on something I know comparatively little about (I'm a blogger, not a coach of course), what worries me the most are the big plays. It seems to me that teams that can get the tempo up quickly and early against Navy often take the advantage. While balance is a good thing and controlling the clock always helps, putting points on the board always seems to work out just fine in the end. Like I said, I lean both ways on this, which I guess is why Coach Kragthorpe is so uneasy.

On Navy's Players

I think that there are a lot of players on the Navy team that could play anywhere in the country. Florida State, USC and Texas would love to have a lot of the guys that are playing. They are very, very disciplined. They play extremely fast and they play extremely hard. They have good talent. They are not a particularly big football team. You are not going to see an offensive line like a BYU who we played a few weeks ago that has 300-pounders across the board, and that's good. What you are going to see is a very athletic group of players. I don't think they are substandard players by any way shape or form. They are very good athletes. They can run. They are big. They're physical in the secondary. They have a fullback that can pound you. They have a quarterback (Brian Hampton) that plays on the perimeter and throws the football. Reggie Campbell is a great football player. He can play any place in the country, there's no question. You can ask 117 teams that would love to have Campbell on their team."

This is a really interesting statement. Are there teams that would love having some of the Navy players on their rosters? No doubt. Are those teams named USC or Texas? I think that's stretching it just a tad bit, wouldn't you say? I mean, considering that fact that only a few of the Navy starters had offers to play at other mid-level I-A schools (Keenan Little and Brian Hampton especially come to mind), don't you think it's a little presumptuous to think that they would be able to fit into a program which has 3 and 4 star players as third stringers! I'm not one to put down the talent of this Navy team, on contraire mon frere, I've argued in the past that the talent level the Mids have is grossly underestimated. But there is a big difference between a USC and say a Wake Forest. The part about being able to run is right on the money, but is it just me or did Coach Steve call the Midshipmen team "big." Probably not the right word to use in that context, but hey, it's apparent that Tulsa's staff really has a lot of respect for this Navy team, and you can't argue with that. Also, unless he's discounting Navy and his own team, there would actually be 119 teams in the country who would love having Reggie Campbell on their team (despite commonly held belief, FIA and FAU do count as I-A teams.)

On the Navy players, from a non-football perspective

I really admire the guys on their football team. I know that number one they have made a commitment to serve our country. At any point in time, they could be deployed and be put in a position to actually physically defend our country. So, number one I have a lot of respect for them from that standpoint. I appreciate them. Number two, their daily routine is a daily routine that is very rigorous. You talk about getting up in the morning and being in formation, going to class all day long, going to football practice, going to study hall, and staying up at night to study. They have a full load. For these guys to get to watch ESPN SportsCenter would be a treat, whereas our guys can do that four times a day if they want to. I have a lot of respect for Coach Johnson and the job he's done there, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the players. It's a lifestyle that requires a tremendous amount of discipline. It's a lifestyle that makes you have a lot of sacrifices and force you to put things in priority. These guys have put our country at the top of their list from a priority standpoint. I appreciate those guys.

Very well said. it's easy for someone like me to sit here and talk about this team and it's players, but to actually go through the lifestyle of a D-I student-athlete at a Service Academy is a whole different ballpark. It really makes you appreciate what these guys can accomplish.

While I never thought I'd be praising the work of someone named BelchingBucko, you may want to check out a highlight video he made of Tulsa's loss to BYU. Because Tulsa isn't exactly featured on National Television every week (damn those ESPN big whigs), I figured this is really the only way to get an actual look at the play of the Golden Tornado before they roll into Annapolis for Saturday's game against Navy. Unfortunately the highlight tape had to be made against a team like BYU, which runs a pass-happy offensive attack which has pretty much nothing in common with Paul Johnson's triple option offense. Nevertheless, there are some things we can more or less take from watching the film.
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First thing's first, the music. Hats off to Bucko for picking a classic rock song. While "Thunderstruck" is often used for highlight videos, it kicks the heck out of all these rap adapted highlight films I've been seeing. Ok, enough of that and onto the football aspect. As you can see from the opening clips, BYU broke off some nice runs. Although Tulsa has a very talented linebacker corps, I got the feeling watching the video that the Tulsa secondary wasn't willing to play-ultra aggressive against the run. Of course when you play a team like BYU I guess that makes sense, but whatever, I'm just trying to draw some positives from this. BYU rushed for a healthy 227 yards in this game, so the Midshipmen should at least make some progress on the ground. While the video made Paul Smith and his offense look mediocre, I'm still worried about the Tulsa passing game, especially those short hitches and wide receiver screens the Navy secondary struggles against, especially with a patchwork secondary for the time being. That's really all I have to say about all that. While Tulsa bounced back against North Texas last week (holding the Mean Green to under 100 yards), you do have to remember that it was North Texas that Tulsa was playing. BYU is a quality team, but they're far from a National Title contender. Judging by the way the Cougars handled Tulsa, I'm willing to bet that the Midshipmen will have a shot come Saturday.